EPA Announces Opportunity to Apply for 2013 Environmental Justice Small Grants
Up to Five Awards Available in Southeast

ATLANTA – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is seeking applicants for a total of $1.5 million in environmental justice small grants to be awarded in 2013. EPA’s environmental justice efforts aim to ensure equal environmental and health protections for all Americans, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. The grants enable non-profit organizations to conduct research, provide education and develop solutions to local health and environmental issues in communities overburdened by harmful pollution. One to five grants per EPA region will be made in amounts of up to $30,000 per award.

“Environmental justice grants support efforts to raise awareness about local health and environmental concerns,” said Lisa Garcia, EPA’s senior advisor to the administrator for environmental justice. “By supporting local projects in under-served communities, communities are able to develop plans and partnerships that will continue to improve their local environment and better protect human health into the future.”

The 2013 grant solicitation is now open and will close on Jan. 7, 2013. Applicants must be incorporated non-profits or tribal organizations working to educate, empower and enable their communities to understand and address local environmental and public health issues. EPA will host four pre-application teleconference calls on Oct. 30, 2012; Nov. 14, 2012; Dec. 1, 2012; and Dec. 13, 2012 to help applicants understand the requirements.

Previous grants in the Southeast have supported activities including projects to engage citizens along the Alabama coast in addressing storm water runoff and oil pollution following the BP spill, conduct research on surface water contamination near swine lagoons and spray fields Eastern North Carolina and identify and reduce exposure to indoor air contaminants and other environmental hazards inside affordable housing projects in Atlanta, Ga.

The principles of environmental justice uphold the idea that all communities overburdened by pollution – particularly minority, low income and indigenous communities – deserve the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, equal access to the decision-making process and a healthy environment in which to live, learn and work. Since 1994, the environmental justice small grants program has provided funding in more than 1,300 communities, to community-based non-profit organizations and local governments working to address environmental justice issues. The grants represent EPA’s commitment to expand the conversation on environmentalism and advance environmental justice in communities across the nation.